AAD: Green Tea Shows Anti-Acne Properties

Action Points

Inform interested patients that the findings from this very small, preliminary, study that has not been peer reviewed are interesting, but that the investigator is the head of the company that funded the research. For this reason, it is important that further studies be performed and published by independent investigators before any recommendations can be made and before any products based on this research become available.

Caution patients against creating their own green tea formulations since the study used a specific formulation that is far from widespread use and is not FDA-approved for acne treatment.

NEW ORLEANS - According to a small study, patients with papulopustular rosacea respond to treatment with hydrophilic cream containing 2% polyphenone (green tea extract) -- in particular reducing significantly the mean inflammatory lesion count when compared to placebo.

Tanweer Syed, MD, PhD, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of San Francisco, California, who developed the tea extract, said that women randomized to receive the cream had a 70% improvement in rosacea compared to women in the placebo arm. That difference, he said, achieved a statistical significance at the P

Dr. Syed developed the polyphenone cream and is head of a company that is sponsoring clinical trials -- such as the one he reported on Sunday during a moderated poster presentation. He said that he scrutinized green tea because he noted a lack of rosacea in populations that regularly consumed the tea.

"The one thing we have to realize about this study is that it represents small numbers and there is considerable work that has to be done before this cream is on the market,'' said Guy Webster, MD, moderator of the poster session and vice chairman of dermatology at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia.

"However, these results are tantalizing. These women obviously had rosacea and blushing. There is not much you can do for this. But the faces were looking distinctively red and they are coming out not distinctively red," he said referring to images on the poster.

In the study, Dr. Syed recruited 60 women aged 25 to 50 years. All women had visible signs of papules and pustules, 20 had erythema and 17 had telangiectasia. Half of the women were randomized to active treatment with the 2% polyphenone cream and half to placebo. The women applied the cream to their faces twice a day for four weeks. Cure was defined by the absence of clinical signs of inflammation.

After four weeks, marked beneficial improvement was observed in both groups. But the active cream yielded a statistically significantly higher reduction in mean inflammatory lesion count than placebo measured by a standard global assessment score, Dr. Syed said.

The cream not only has been shown to improve rosacea, but green tea extract also has natural anti-aging and anti-acne properties as well as a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of 50, Dr. Syed said. "The green tea has a soothing quality that helps the redness."

The difference in this product versus others on the market, he said, is that the green tea leaves are picked and used within five hours, before turning dark and fermenting.

Dr. Syed concluded that the cream is safe, well tolerated and effective. His company, Syed Skincare Inc., funded 75% of the study.

Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine